30
Sep
Whenever we travel, well the times we need to bring Noby’s pack-n-play, we also have to bring his pack-n-play tent. This thing has tons of parts and until now I used two ziplock bags and an elastic band. I decided to use some of the fabric I had upstairs and within two days of naps I think I made something that will work!
The problem…
The bags to hold it all…
And they all fit neatly into the big one…
29
Sep
Today Noby and I headed to the park to try out his new kicks. While at the outlets in NH, we found a GREAT deal on sneakers for Noby. As we all know Stride Rite is kind of pricey but this is one of the only places we can find Wide and Extra Wide shoes that fit.
Well these shoes must feel great, Noby climbed the rock wall all by himself.
27
Sep
I almost forgot to share with everyone Noby’s 2 year old photo shot. He once again surprised me and did an amazing job. He smiled when asked, laughed when prompted and even sat still long enough to get these great shots!
26
Sep
So as you remember we’ve been working on the yard. Our plan is to one day have a backyard that Noby can play in. Last time we worked on it we filled two Bagster Bags of old wood that was in the corner of the yard. Well today Ichiro and I were at it again. This is what the yard looked like when we finished the last time we worked on it….
Today’s plan was to level the back yard out, removing as many rocks as we could, and plant some grass seed. BUT before we could even think about the backyard we needed to tackle the VERY overgrown front yard. We have been neglecting the outside for a while now and it was looking pretty ghetto. We decided to just dig up the flower beds and will start over with some nice fall mums.
After our long day of work…
The front…
The side…
And the back…
It’s hard to tell but we leveled it out as much as possible…
All the rocks we collected from the yard… (New plan is to see if we can plant bamboo in those cinder blocks. This should… A. keep the trash from the apartment building from coming under the fence and B. Hide the ugly fence. IF it can be done we will put cinder blocks along the entire back wall. For now I just put all the rocks we removed from the dirt there.)
Putting down grass seed…
Working hard….
25
Sep
Noby wanted to thank his friends for both birthday packages he got in the mail today. He first opened the package from Peyton. She did a great job picking out a cute outfit but Noby was more interested in the MORE then 40 pieces of Mr Potato Head!!!
Trying the glasses out…
Next he decided to check out what was in the box from his buddies Avery and Ari…
The best Japanese T-shirt of his future profession… (DJ)
He also got a Japanese baby doll. Ari saw the doll in the store and said “Noby,” Kelly had to get it!
Giving kisses to the baby…
Noby (and I) want to thank everyone for all the birthday wishes and great birthday gifts!
23
Sep
Well today our vacation came to the end. We had a fantastic time and want to thank Brenda for that. See back in 2006, YES 2006, the year Ichiro and I were married. Actually Christmas of 2006, our first Chirstmas as a married couple, Brenda gave us a gift certificate to bedandbreakfast.com. Bedandbreakfast.com is a website that has over 7000 participating bed and breakfasts all around the world. You pick an area that you want to visit, put in all requirements and search for all bed and breakfast and Inns that meet your needs. We knew we wanted to visit the White Mountains, we needed a place that allowed children and also accepted gift certificates (not all places do.) Once all the info was entered a LARGE lists of Inns and Bed and Breakfast came up. I surfed and surfed and finally found one that jumped out at me. I LOVE the idea of bed and breakfasts but I have a hard time loving the decor of them. Most have the flower bedspreads, that match the flower wall paper, that matches the flowered rug. So the instant I saw The Whitney Inn I knew it was perfect for us.
Here are a few pictures from the website…
The lobby in the main building…
We decided on a Family Suite, the bedroom looked similar to this…
Our living room looked something like this…
Here are a few pictures we took of the grounds…
The Whitney Inn was just amazing. The staff was super nice and our breakfasts were SOOO yummy!! I would highly recommend it to anyone heading up to that area.
So thanks again to Brenda for such an awesome gift 3 years ago. I bet you never thought it would be used for our first FAMILY vacations!!! Love Ya!
22
Sep
Tuesday we spent the afternoon shopping at the outlets. We found so many great deals for both Noby and Ichiro. It was a beautiful day to walk around and enjoy the outside. Settlers’ Green Outlet Village has some of the same stores as Wrentham but this place was so much better. The backdrop of mountains was just beautiful and there was even a playground for Noby to chill out for a bit.
22
Sep
Monday was Noby’s birthday. I can’t believe my little man is already two years old, these two years have gone by so quickly! He is growing into such an enjoyable little boy, it’s so much fun to be able to show and teach him new things. Don’t get me wrong he is testing us daily but I guess this is what people call the Terrible Twos.
We had a great time celebrating his birthday yesterday. We started with a lovely breakfast at the Inn, opened a few gifts at our room, hiking to Sabbaday Falls, found a few letterboxes, opened a few more gifts. It was a day filled with lots of fun, but no nap so that meant after his favorite dinner of chicken nuggets it was home to an early bedtime.
20
Sep
After our trip to Clark’s we crossed to street to the overflow parking lot. I had done a little research before we left home and learned that there were two letterboxes hiding somewhere over there. We followed the first clue and it brought us right to the edge of the lot, behind a big rock and under some small boxes…
First box FOUND…
Unwrapping everything in the box…
The stamp inside the box…
Leaving our stamp on their book, with a little note…
Stamping our book with the first stamp…
After we found the first one, we started over to find the second. This one was a little more difficult, bringing us further into the woods. I had to leave Ichiro and Noby when I went to find it…
FOUND…
Next we travel up the road to the Indian Head Resort, where I knew another clue was hidden.
The Indian Head in the mountain…
Finding the box…
The grounds at the resort is just beautiful…
The stamp…
This is why the stamp is a teepee…
So now we decided to head to the Inn. I think Ichiro had enough of me dragging him in the woods. haha The GPS was sending us through Franconia Notch State Park and as we were driving I realized we had a clue for the Old Man in the Mountain. As we all know the Old Man fell a while ago and someone had planted a 5th Anniversary of his Falling box. I think this had to be the hardest of all the clues thus far. We drove around and finally I jumped out and ran down this path. I let Ichiro sit in the car to listen to the end of the race. It wasn’t right but from down the path I could see what I thought was right. So I ran back up the hill, ok walked fast, and jumped in the car. I had Ichiro drive to where I thought it was and then jumped out again. I followed the bike path, under the highway, past a small man made waterfall, 30 paces past a big rock to a fallen tree. Under the tree… I found it, I great man made stamp of the Man in the Mountain… picture to come.
Where we “think” the Man was…
By the time we got to the Inn and unpacked, we fed Noby a yummy ghetto dinner of edamame, apple sauce and dry cherrios and put him to bed. (please don’t lash me on that one) He was so tired and went right down, we’ll have to see if he makes it through the night with us in the room. Tonight will be the test to see if we’re sleeping on the pullout couch tomorrow. haha
So because I knew we had a microwave and fridge in our room, I planned on bringing a few meals that Ichiro and I could just heat up in the microwave. I know, I am SUCH my mother’s daughter. LOL I knew after our long day today that we would be in no mood to go out and I doubt they have any takeout where we are. So tonight’s dinner was our yummy Spicy Thai Shrimp. I made the meals in old plastic take out containers that could be just tossed in the trashed when we were finished. I know what you’re thinking, “Becky, you are such a great planner, you think of everything. I can’t believe you made meals to take with you…” Or maybe you are calling me “Lame and a Loser.” But whatever you call it, I wasn’t that good. I forgot forks so I made Ichiro eat with Noby’s fork and I used the spoon. HAHA GOOOOOO ME!!
